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Ten years after the introduction of the Skills for Life Strategy, which aimed to improve the literacy, language and numeracy skills of 2.25 million adults by 2010, the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) launched an independent inquiry into the state of adult literacy in England. [NIACE] appointed a group of 12 commissioners, chaired by Lord Boswell of Aynho, to guide the work. [The purpose was] to discover how to respond to the current challenges faced by adults with under-developed literacy skills as well as seek ways of preventing the need for adult literacy initiatives and campaigns in future. [The] focus was on adult provision and not on schools. [The inquiry involved] a literature review, expert seminars and focus groups and invited papers from stakeholders, and asking key questions about the successes on which to build as well as areas for development. The findings, analysis, conclusions and detailed recommendations are set out in this report.

Investigates the principal factors that promote and hinder sustainable 'Skills for Life' workplace provision. Provides background information on UK skills policy. Discusses factors that can enable or prevent learning at macro, organisational and individual levels of activity. Reviews organisational approaches to Skills for Life provision and individuals' strategies for coping with their existing literacy and numeracy skills. Looks at the benefits that learners derived from participation in Skills for Life courses. Presents a case study analysis of organisations that had developed long-term Skills for Life provision. Explores the following obstacles to the establishment of sustainable Skills for Life provision: the impact of funding arrangements; the adaptation of Skills for Life provision to the workplace; and the impact of the recession and economic downturn. Suggests that a complex and changing funding landscape, with its associated bureaucracy and focus on credentialism, has had a negative impact on the long-term sustainability of Skills for Life provision at organisational level.

A study of 1027 teachers of literacy, numeracy and [English for speakers of other languages] ESOL in England from 2004 to 2007. The teachers were interviewed in depth on at least three occasions during this period shedding light on all aspects of their professional life. The Teacher Study aimed to find out who these teachers were, what they do at work and what they think about their job. It has a particular focus on the impact of the Skills for Life strategy on them and their work. The strategy aims to improve the skills of those groups where literacy and numeracy needs are greatest, e.g. unemployed people; prisoners and those under supervision in the community; low-skilled people in employment; and other groups at risk of exclusion such as homeless people, refugees, asylum seekers and those who do not speak English as a first language. The impact of the strategy on those who teach and train Skills for Life learners is varied and multifaceted. For some teachers, the strategy has given a new standing and respectability to the field and the career in which they have worked for many years. Others perceive that the standards, targets and bureaucracy that have come with the initiative create administrative burdens and divert teachers from their commitment to social justice and their main business of improving learners' knowledge and skills. Many have welcomed the new professionalism that Skills for Life has brought; for others the strategy has emphasised divisions between different teachers in different education sectors.